Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to security and warning systems and particularly to a web-based travel safety system which comprises a real-time method and process that monitors and maintains greatly enhanced safety and security for travelers and corporations by creating a multi-layered and integrated system of multi-faceted intelligence collection and dissemination, global electronic monitoring, locating and tracking technology, telecommunications, multi-channel electronic distribution of relevance-parameterized advice and information to travelers with full acknowledgements and audit trail of critical alert messages both pushed to the traveler or traveler-requested, individual and corporate global security services, emergency response, disaster alerts, search and rescue operations initiated either/both by monitor processes or by the traveler and a wide range of travel safety and security related ancillary services, all coordinated under the management of a central international command and control center with regional sub control centers throughout the world; all components are brought together by the method and process to work synergistically.
Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
There are many reasons in today's world which cause concern over the safety and security of travelers. Airports are a prime example of locations which may put a traveler at risk. Security systems are currently in use in airports to isolate individuals or items posing a security risk, but these are not enough to deter someone intent on creating harm.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,514, issued Feb. 22, 2000 to Lemelson, concerns a personal emergency, safety warning system and method for monitoring a geographic person location, periodically warning a person of emergency situations in the geographic location, and transmitting requests for assistance in emergency situations. The system comprises a warning unit that is carried by the person or that is located in mobile units or in buildings or houses. The warning unit includes a geographic satellite receiver, a receiver circuit that receives broadcast warning signals defining dangerous situations and geographic locations of the situations, a computer controller including a processor and a memory, an alarm indicator that indicates when the person is in danger, and a transmission circuit that generates and transmits signals requesting assistance and signals warning of the dangerous situations in a vicinity of the person carrying the portable warning unit along with the current geographic location of the person. The system further comprises a command center. The command center includes a database computer having a database storage unit, a transmitter for broadcasting signals to the unit(s), a receiver for receiving signals, a transmitter for transmitting signals to emergency response units and centers, and other such communication devices. The system uses the unit(s) to monitor and communicate with the person using it. The unit(s) interfacingly communicate with the command center. Signals indicative of a dangerous situation and a geographic situation location are transmitted from the command center to the unit(s). The geographic person location is compared with the geographic situation location indicated in the received signal from the command center. Expert system rules are used to determine the dangerous situation and a degree(s) of danger index for the person(s) near or at the geographic situation location. Signals are received and transmitted to and from the monitor/response center via a transmit/receive radio and antenna system. The radio system, for example, is in the form of a cellular telephone system or other suitable radio communication devices for communications with telecommunications. The Lemelson patent describes a system to track and locate individuals by a device (cell phone) and to send them alert messages of dangerous situations in an area defined by the geographical location of the individual. The described system also has the ability to receive emergency distress signals from the device.
U.S. Patent Application #20070052533, published Mar. 8, 2007 by Glazer, describes methods and apparatus for providing alerts or warnings of a variety of hazards. A warning system is disclosed that continuously operates and is configured to receive and analyze advisory notices from publicly and/or privately available broadcasts that do not require registration of the device and/or user. Continuous operation provides the warning system user with appropriate warnings, even when the user cannot personally monitor the advisory notices, such as when the user is asleep. The Glazer invention relates solely to the communication of alert messages to an individual using locating technology to identify whether the user is within a ‘risk’ area which has been defined by analyzing intelligence.
U.S. Patent Application #20070072583, published Mar. 29, 2007 by Barbeau, discloses an emergency reporting and locator system adapted for GPS-enabled wireless devices. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is and Location Based Services (LBS) are used to determine the exact location of a user and communicate information relating to the emergency status of that location. The user initiates the locator application via a wireless device and their physical location information is automatically transferred to a server. The server then compares the user's location with Geographic Information System (GIS) maps to identify the emergency status associated with their location. Once the server has calculated the current emergency status, the information is automatically returned to the user, along with emergency instructions. The Barbeau invention relates solely to the sending of alert messages at times of emergency, or the status of a given area if requested by the end user. The persons to whom a message is sent are selected by relating their location, as indicated by a GPS device, to the location of an emergency situation.
U.S. Patent Application #20060265489, published Nov. 23, 2006 by Moore, claims disaster management using an enhanced syndication platform. The invention relates to hardware, software and electronic service components and systems to provide large-scale, reliable, and secure foundations for distributed databases and content management systems, combining unstructured and structured data, and allowing post-input reorganization to achieve a high degree of flexibility. This system may be combined with various syndication techniques to provide a platform for disaster preparation, response, and relief. The invention described may allow disaster relief data to be stored in a syndication format, processed, and published through a plurality of disaster management data feeds. The syndicated content may be used by disaster relief participants in the preparation, response and relief efforts associated with a disaster.
Two U.S. patents, U.S. Pat. No. 6,559,769 issued May 6, 2003 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,261 issued Mar. 29, 2005 both to Anthony, are for an early-warning security system for monitoring and tracking in near real-time or real-time the activities and movements associated with prescribed personnel, personal property, mobile vehicles, and buildings. The system comprises a plurality of in situ local controllers having a microprocessor and a coordinated plurality of conspicuous and clandestine digital video cameras for continuously producing digital audio and visual signals, uplinking such signals via a suitable wireless telecommunications device to a satellite, general packet radio service, the Internet, intranet or extranet, and then downlinking these signals to a plurality of control centers for recording and analysis thereof. Uplinking of these digital signals may occur continuously or may be activated by a manual or predefined trigger event. Preventative or remedial action is immediately taken when perturbations from normal behavior or activities are observed in the recorded audio and visual signals The Anthony patents relate to the surveillance of individuals, vehicles etc by the use of digital cameras and audio. The information gathered is transmitted to a central station for analysis and reaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,509,833, issued Jan. 21, 2003 to Tate, provides a method and a system for providing a warning alert to subscribers of a telecommunication system. In one aspect, the warning system includes a central switch and a remote switch, each switch coupled to a different plurality of subscribers to be contacted by the emergency notification provider that issues the emergency warning alert. In another aspect, the warning system contains a ringing tones database having different ringing tones corresponding to different emergency conditions, where an appropriate ringing tone is select by the telecommunication system and routed to the subscribers depending on the type emergency for which the emergency notification provider is providing the warning. In another aspect, a method of distributing a warning alert is disclosed in which a warning alert is selected from a number of warning alerts corresponding to a number of different emergency conditions, the telecommunication system receives the warning alert, selects a set of subscribers to which the warning alert is to be distributed, selects a ringing tone appropriate to the warning alert type and routes the ringing tone to the selected subscribers. In another aspect, the above method is disclosed that further includes a method for billing an appropriate government agency or local municipality for the emergency notification service. The Tate patent relates solely to the distribution of warning or alert messages to devices such as cell phones. The selection of persons to receive the message is achieved by either pre-determined call groups, or geographic location established by GPS.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,868,266, issued Mar. 15, 2005 to Yen, shows a multi-purpose safety management system comprising a smart all-purpose expert management system which integrates a global positioning system, a digital remote monitoring system, the Internet, and various kinds of communication networks like the satellite communication network, the public switch telephone network, and the mobile phone system. The smart all-purpose expert management system can provide all-purpose personal life real-time services for the user. The service items include global personal safety guard, home safety guard, personal exclusive database management, personal life secretary, global communication service of single telephone number, communication group setting, and so on The Yen patent describes the tracking and locating of a cell phone by a control center and the ability to send an automatic distress signal. Remedial action is then initiated.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,088,252, issued Aug. 8, 2006 to Weekes, discloses systems and apparatus for personal security. A personal security device is provided which includes a wireless transmitter operable to transmit information pertaining to a user to a monitoring network. A monitoring network may communicate with a particular user or users via the user interface of the personal safety module. For example, the monitoring network may send broadcast messages, e.g., warnings or alerts, to users via output devices on the user interface. Further, monitoring network may provide for one or two-way communications with a particular user via user interface. The user interface may function as a cellular telephone for communication with hub or other entities. The Weekes patent relates to transmission of alert messages to an individual wearing a harness and a receiving device (cell phone). The user can of course communicate with a monitoring station by this two-way device. The main point of the invention seems to relate to a harness worn by the user containing the device. If the device is removed without authority of the user a sensor in the harness facilitates the transmission of a distress signal to the monitoring station.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,411,207, issued Jun. 25, 2002 to Shaffer, indicates a personal alert device for a user which includes a portable housing to be carried by the user, a processor in the housing, and at least one sensor connected to the processor for detecting a possible physical threat to the user. The processor generates an alert message relating to a recommended course of action for the user to avoid the possible physical threat. The alert message may be an audible speech message, and a visual message displayed on a display connected to the processor. Since a person can be exposed to a variety of physical threats on any given day, the personal alert device carried by the user provides reliable detection of a possible physical threat, and by generating an alert message the user receives a recommended course of action to avoid the possible physical threat. Networking may be accomplished via a broadband local area network or a cellular network. In the Shaffer patent, the user carries or wears a device that contains one or a number of sensors. The sensors can detect dangers such as dangerous, gasses or a rapid change in air pressure indicating possible weather danger. The device then sends a message to a monitoring station who by voice, or text messaging advise the user of appropriate action. The device can also be remotely connected to such things as fire alarms in buildings where the user gets a personal warning of a fire alarm etc in case he cannot hear it and may also check the status of the fire alarm system by the device without having to ask, for instance, maintenance staff.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,838,998, issued Jan. 4, 2005 to Brown, puts forth a multi-user Internet-based personal tracking system for tracking the position of a portable location unit (such as a cell phone) by a remote user comprising a web host connected to the Internet having a computer storage medium, a portable location unit having a processor for receiving geo-position information, and generating geo-position data representing the position of said location unit, a transceiver included in said, location unit for transmitting said position signal to said web host in response to a call signal being received from said web host, a power supply for supplying power to said processor and said transceiver; and a computer program residing on said web host having an input module for receiving a tracking request signal from the remote user via the Internet, a processing module for processing said tracking request signal, and a communication module for initializing communication with said location unit in response to tracking said request signal, and a location module for outputting said call signal to said location unit and for receiving said geo-position data from said location unit; and a display module for outputting said position dataset to the remote user via the Internet for display of the location unit's position at the remote user's site. The Brown patent relates to technology that will provide the location of a GPS instrument when interrogated remotely. Family or company etc can, by accessing the Internet and entering access codes receive information that confirms the present location of the persons carrying a GPS device.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,209,731, issued Apr. 24, 2007 to Choi, illustrates a protection method using a mobile communication terminal, and in particular a member protection method using a mobile communication terminal which is capable of quickly coping with an emergency situation in such a manner that when a certain situation, for example, a member with a mobile communication terminal having a positioning function rides in taxi or is in a strange building, and moving information such as an engaged time when the situation is ended and a taxi registered number is registered in a central control server, a member's position is recognized and temporarily stored. In the case that a movement lifting notice is not received from a member until an engaged time, moving information such as a member's position is transmitted to a mobile communication terminal of a security staff. In the Choi patent, the user manually calls a monitoring station by cell phone and states that they are entering into a possible security risk, i.e traveling by taxi or entering a strange building. Details of the taxi license plate or address of the building are provided to the monitoring station together with a period of time during which the user must call back and cancel the possible security danger. i.e they leave the taxi or building. In the event that the situation is not cancelled and the time period expires the monitoring station respond and take appropriate action. The users cell phone is tracked to assist in rendering assistance. The main aspect of this patent appears to be the manual system for the user to request monitoring of the situation by requiring a further response during the stated time period.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,716,101, issued Apr. 6, 2004 to Meadows, claims a system and method for monitoring the geographical location of a subscriber's mobile cellular telephone, and for providing the location information to an authorized user through the World Wide Web. The geographical location of the subscriber's mobile cellular telephone is tracked using registration signals transmitted over the control channel by the cellular telephone. This information is supplied to a geographical location coordinator system, which determines the geographical coordinates for the cellular telephone. A database stores the geographical location information along with a subscriber's telephone number and account code. The database is updated to track the movement of the cellular telephone user across a geographical area. The Meadows patent sets out a basic concept of tracking cell phones with location information available to authorized users via the Internet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,825, issued Dec. 18, 2001 to Ladner, describes a mobile locator system which comprises a locator device, a control center, a workstation and a computerized interface. The control center and the locator device are configured to communicate via cellular and pager signals. The control center includes modems, a router, a paging server, a communication server, MIN tracking circuit, a data manager, a data base, a GIS server; a mail server, a global network (such as the Internet), and a customer interface server. The Ladner patent details tracking and locating of GPS cell phones.
What is needed is a real-time Web-based multi-unit travel safety system and method which utilizes both locating technology and alert messaging and adds many more component parts to achieve much greater safety levels through its multiple components working in synergy, which results in a comprehensive and global process providing a high level of traveler safety in a unified system never before created and with results not previously achievable.